Zim to refurbish major roads

HARARE – Zimbabwe is set to refurbish most of its major highways and local
roads in an effort to reduce traffic accidents, Transport minister Joram
Gumbo (pictured) has said.

The country requires at least $2,2 billion to rehabilitate the national
road network comprising approximately 17 000 kilometres of tarred roads
and 71 000 kilometres of gravel roads.

Gumbo said Zimbabwe’s entire road network has outlived its 20-year life
span hence the need for major refurbishments.

“We shall always continue to prioritise road safety as evidenced by the
completion of the rehabilitation of the Plumtree-Harare-Nyamapanda
highway. Unfortunately, this same highway recorded the highest number of
fatalities last year due to speeding,” he told delegates attending the
commemoration of the Global Road Safety Week in Harare recently.

Gumbo also indicated that the dualisation of the
Harare-Masvingo-Beitbridge Road was “set to be rolled out in a couple of
days’ time”.

This comes as the southern African country is experiencing increased
traffic accidents due to a rise in motor vehicle population, poor road
infrastructure and speeding.

Gumbo said although most of the accidents in Zimbabwe could be avoided, 27
percent of the 38 620 road crashes recorded last year were attributable to
speeding.

“The problems of both excessive and inappropriate speed are prevalent on
Zimbabwe’s roads. Excessive speed is when a vehicle exceeds the posted
speed limit for a particular road. This is illegal.

“On the other hand, inappropriate speed is when a vehicle travels at a
speed that is unsuitable for the prevailing road, weather, and traffic
conditions but within the speed limit. This is unsafe,” he added.

Speeding has been identified internationally as one of the major causes of
the road traffic injury problem. It is the highest contributing factor in
the gravity of all road traffic crashes and results in the preventable
loss of a life and a limb.

According to research on the causes of road traffic injury, speed
contributes to around one-third of all fatal road traffic crashes in
high-income countries and up to 50 percent in low-and middle-income
countries.

In the United Kingdom, speed is reported to be responsible for 28 percent
of all fatal road crashes. Meanwhile, infrastructure experts said while it
was desirable for the government to refurbish the country’s road network
systems, Zimbabwe’s present economic conditions cannot support a project
of that magnitude running into billions of dollars.

“Public-private partnerships road sub-sector projects in Zimbabwe at the
present time are inhibited by the low volume of traffic, even on the major
highway like the Harare-Beitbridge Road, whose average traffic is around 1
000 vehicles per day, making the roads unviable on a self-financing basis,
although they may be economically viable,” said an expert who preferred
anonymity.

Funding for roads should normally come from the national fiscus, but
because of the economic difficulties experienced by Zimbabwe and with
limited funding from multilateral financial institutions and bilateral
foreign donors, funding for capital projects has been very limited in the
past two decades.